This morning’s “must read”: Get up to date on state of voting law and court challenges

[1]If you’ve found yourself having trouble keeping up with the details of North Carolina’ new Monster Voting Law, its implementation and the court challenges that have ensued, you owe it to yourself to read Sharon McCloskey’s latest article that was published this morning: “Voting gets its day in court”[2] over on the main Policy Watch site.

In it, Sharon explains, among other things, the main provision in the law, what’s at issue, who is suing, what they’re arguing, what the state of North Carolina is arguing in defense, who the key witnesses and experts are that are expected to testify in federal court hearings next week. Here’s an excerpt:

“What the parties want

Judge Schroeder has already set the case for trial in the summer of 2015.

The challengers have asked the court in the meantime to block its enforcement so that the November 2014 elections can proceed under voting laws in effect during the 2012 elections.

Practically speaking, that would mean that same-day voter registration would continue, out-of-precinct provisional voting would be allowed, and early voting would take place over 17 days, as opposed to the ten days set in H589. County Boards of Election would still be allowed to keep polls open an extra hour and 16- and 17-year-olds could still be pre-registered to vote.

And though the voter ID provisions of H589 do not go into effect until 2016, the challengers have asked that the “soft roll-out” of voter ID — asking voters for identification in 2014, allegedly to prepare them for that upcoming requirement — be stopped, saying that it confuses and intimidates voters.

The state defendants, on the other hand, have asked the court to enter judgment in their favor, saying that the underlying arguments asserted by the Justice Department and other challengers are legally deficient.”